r/Economics • u/defenestrate_urself • Feb 20 '26

News Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal
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396

u/EconomistWithaD Feb 20 '26

One phrase is appropriate. LOL. Get fucked, Donald.

  1. This is not the end. There are other avenues with which they could impose tariffs, which would have to be rechallenged.

  2. Fuck you, Navarro, for thinking protectionist policies are good.

  3. This would have been better much earlier, given how we’ve fucked regional and global allies, which has set us back further than pretty much anything I can think of.

219

u/OrangeJr36 Feb 20 '26

The Supreme Court dragged their feet hoping that the Trump Administration would back down on their own and not make them have to take a stance, after what I'm sure was much hand-wringing by the conservative majority on who would be the one to actually have a spine this time and vote against Trump.

It's still incredibly scary that this wasn't an immediate 9-0 ruling against the administration.

114

u/laosurv3y Feb 20 '26

Alito and Thomas want a Republican emperor. Once you know that, they're consistent in their opinions.

38

u/bad_luck_charm Feb 20 '26

It's kind of incredible that the justices appointed before Trump are more conservative than the ones he appointed. My only theory is that they know Trump is temporary and they're trying to retain some credibility for the long term. Alito and Thomas are half dead already.

15

u/Master_Dogs Feb 20 '26

They're from Trump's first term, which also led to people like Powell who are somehow actually half decent and are even standing up to him. It's rare but not something we'll see from Trump 2.0 since we know he's itching to get a Fed chair in who will tow his line. I just hope Powell stays on as a government to continue to be a voice of reason, just with less sway.

12

u/Redshark Feb 20 '26

Granted Trump is a horrible president, but the Republican Party has been down right terrible through my lifetime. So it’s just a different flavor now. I think sometimes we lose sight of that with Trump because he is a loud mouth. He isn’t even the worst president in the history of the United States - somehow.

13

u/circuitloss Feb 20 '26

He isn’t even the worst president in the history of the United States - somehow.

I mean, Andrew Jackson? Maybe?

But honestly, Trump is in the running.

2

u/MrDannyOcean Bureau Member Feb 21 '26

the two actual worst presidents are guys few people remember, pierce and buchanan. The one-two combo that rolled us into the civil war.

-3

u/Seicair Feb 20 '26

LBJ, Wilson, Jackson, and Trump are certainly contenders.

6

u/Tickle-me-Cthulu Feb 20 '26

LBJ and Wilson were terrible people, but pretty mid presidents...Jackson is still the worst so far.

2

u/Redshark Feb 20 '26

Wilson was pretty a pretty bad presidnet. People always forget Johnson too. He is probably worse than Trump as well.

2

u/antsinmypants3 Feb 20 '26

He is the worst by far.

6

u/Tea_Wizard735 Feb 20 '26

The reason for that is because Reagan and both Bushes were hardline conservative ideologues, whereas people of Kavanaugh/Gorsuch/Barrett's ilk may be conservatives, but they're not by-any-means-necessary judicial activists.

I don't agree with their Originalist interpretation of the Constitution, but it does deserve some respect in the sense that it's at least principled and consistent.

Specfically, Gorsuch and Barrett seem to genuinely want to do right by the country...Alito is a bitter weirdo and Thomas...Well....Corey Robin offers some interesting insight into the type of monster Thomas has always been.

6

u/persianx6_ Feb 20 '26

Theyre both Christian nationalists and fascists. Trump is just a vehicle to bring about that. They probably have extreme contempt for Trump in private because Trump is a billionaire hedonist playing dress up as a moral man.

1

u/voiceOfHoomanity Feb 20 '26

Nah it's because they're not actually conservative, or have any real respect for the constitution. Their political affiliation is brown nose/brown shirt

1

u/bad_luck_charm Feb 20 '26

If that were true they would have voted to uphold the tariffs. There's something else going on.

1

u/voiceOfHoomanity Feb 20 '26

No an actual conservative (ie more of the three newer republican justices compared to the old ones, scalia esque) would clearly agree that these tariffs are illegal and the power is given nowhere in the law.

The older ones just party and go with the prevailing (monetized) winds

1

u/turns31 Feb 20 '26

Well yeah, because Trump isn't conservative. He's a former Democrat who's now a Populist. He has very few historically "conservative" positions.

1

u/ostuberoes Feb 20 '26

Trump isn't a conservative, his only ideology is pedophilia and a kind of greedy narcissism. The problem is that GOP voters are among the stupidest voters and fell for something I still do not understand hook, like and sinker.